Palace of Parliament Building

The Palace of Parliament was built during Nicolae Ceaușescu's regime, in a period marked by severe economic hardship. The project aimed to concentrate key state institutions in a single monumental building while also serving as a highly protected symbolic seat of power.

Architecture and dimensions

Architecturally, the Palace of Parliament remains one of the most controversial buildings in Romania. Its monumental scale, eclectic language, and heavy symbolic charge made it both admired and contested from the beginning.12

In the architect's vision, the building was structured into three major zones: representative halls and galleries, office areas, and belvedere levels with additional halls on each floor.3

Dimensions

  • Developed area: 365.000 mp
  • Length: 270 m
  • Width: 245 m
  • Height: 84 m (above ground level)
  • Depth: 16 m (below ground level)
  • Ground floor area: 73.615 mp

World records

  • 1st place in the world among administrative buildings (civil use)4
  • 3rd place worldwide by volume
  • The heaviest administrative building in the world
  • The most expensive administrative building in the world

Construction materials

The building was constructed almost entirely with Romanian materials:

1.000.000cu m of marble
550.000tons of cement
700.000tons of steel
2.800chandeliers
220.000sqm of carpets
3.500tons of crystal
900.000cu m of wood species
200.000cu m of glass

Construction

The entire project was the result of the effort of more than 100,000 people, with nearly 20,000 workers active in three shifts during peak construction periods. Between 1984 and 1990, around 12,000 soldiers also took part in the works.

Following the urban redevelopment campaign and Ceaușescu's political vision, a new political-administrative center was planned on the Uranus hill area. Starting in 1980, a vast section of Bucharest was demolished to make room for the project.56

Because the Ceaușescus did not easily read architectural plans, scale models of Bucharest were built in polystyrene and constantly updated after their visits and instructions.7

Today

At the time of the 1989 Revolution, the building was only about 60% complete. In 1993, the Chamber of Deputies decided to move its activity here, and in 1994 the International Conference Centre was established in the building.8

What was once intended as a monument to totalitarian power is today a symbol of democracy, housing major Romanian state institutions including the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate, the Legislative Council, and the Constitutional Court.

1 Anca Petrescu was the chief architect of the building. At only 28 years old she won the competition context that led to the project.
2 Gheorghe Leahu, "București Micul Paris", Regia Autonomă – Monitorul Oficial.
3 Report for the Architecture Foundation of Brussels and the National House of Monuments and Historic Sites in Paris (1990).
4 World Records Academy – consulted April 2015.
5 The earthquake of 4 March 1977 measured 7.2 on the Richter scale and caused more than 1,400 fatalities.
6 Reference source on the Senate Square Operetta, the Army Arsenal, and the Central Military Museum.
7 Gheorghe Leahu, "București Micul Paris", Regia Autonomă – Monitorul Oficial.
8 Chamber of Deputies Decision no. 31 of 16 March 1993.